Don't be overwhelmed by the title! True, I used two kinds of berries, strawberry and Saskatoon berry.

I never feel regret that I had to move out from the city due to my work's location. I live close to the farmers where the food begins. My neighbour sometimes offers me to have some fresh vegetables from their garden.

Out of the blue, one of the local people came to the office. She brought a pack of fresh strawberry from u-pick farm. They were totally awesome, sweet and really red. Totally different with the store bought ones! I decided to keep some of them frozen and ate the rest for smoothie and snack.

The next two week, my husband and I went for Saskatoon berries u-pick. I came to conclusion to make New York style Cheesecake with adding Saskatoon Berries as compote. The story of Saskatoon Berry will be posted later.

Since I played around with the recipe, I thought it would be failed. Voila!!! I modified by adding flour as I enhanced by fresh/frozen strawberry in cream cheese filling, and of course the compote.

New York Style Strawberry Cheesecake
recipe by Ricardo Larriv�e, modified by me

Ingredients:
Crust

1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs =>I used Italian �Savoiardi� Lady finger cookies, then grind
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup melted butter => I reduced to 3 tbsp

Cream Cheese Filling
4 x Container (250 g/8 oz each) cream cheese, at room temperature=> I used 3 containers
1 1/4 cups sugar => I reduced into 1 cup sugar
4 x eggs
1/2 cup 35% cream => I substituted for plain natural yogurt
1 tbsp vanilla extract => I skipped this
1 cup fresh/frozen strawberry
1/2 cup flour (I suggested to reduce to 1/4 cup)
2 tsp konyaku jelly powder (I suggested to reduce to 1 tsp)

Directions:
Crust

1. In a bowl, combine the ingredients. Press lightly into the bottom of a 20-cm (8-inch) springform pan. Bake for about 10 minutes at 350�F. Let cool.
2. Wrap the outside (bottom and sides) of the springform pan with aluminum foil, making sure it�s watertight
3. Turn the oven temperature down to 170�C (325�F).

Cream Cheese Filling

1. Place all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until smooth. Pour onto the crust.
2. Prepare a bain-marie: Place the springform pan in a large baking dish. Fill the baking dish with boiling water until it comes halfway up the side of the pan.
3. Bake in the middle of the oven until the filling is set at the edges but the centre trembles slightly when shaken, about 70 minutes. Turn off the oven, leaving the cake inside with the door slightly ajar for 1 hour. Remove the pan from the bain-marie. Remove the foil from the pan. Run a thin knife around the inside edge of the pan. Cover and refrigerate until completely chilled, about 4 hours.

» Read More...

The picture is my submission for Click-Agust 2009 with a theme Allium.

Idea of the picture? Why the heck did I put red onion on top of the jar with water in it? Here is the clue, by utilizing the green parts for cooking and leave the red bulb in a jar with water, the greens will grow back and you can use them again, as long as you keep the bulb under water. This method can apply for green onions or scallions as well.

In Indonesian culinary, allium has been used widely, especially shallot which is often in one recipe it is called more than 3 pieces of shallot. The specialty Indonesian nasi goreng also uses shallot, not garlic.

A part of my work�s schedule every Friday is to visit the local farmers� market (FM). On that day, I will bring home a big bag of organic fresh salad mix which is so cheap only $ 2.50. The salad mix frequently contains edible flowers.

About a month ago, I realized that I couldn�t get the usual shallot that I used to get whenever I am in Winnipeg. Instead, I bought a bunch of fresh red onion from the FM and the onions still had the green stalks attached. Anyway, I only keep one bulb of the red since I used the bulb for cooking, my shallot�s substitution for the time being. :)

» Read More...

It was like my ambition to have a cute picture of blueberry since two years ago. Hence, I never got the best shot until last week. I wish I had time to go for blueberry's picking at the Manitoba's local farm. Anyhow, I got a pack of British Columbia's grown blueberry from the store, it's still Canada's producer, eh!

Set up my blueberries on the patio's table, also a small white napkin with blue strip that I got from the local store in Boissevain, The Station.

Lidia told me about the Click July 2009 edition's theme "Bi-Colour" that was perfect for my blueberry's picture. Blue and White is my submission for Click.

I do love taking pictures, but I am pissed off lately as I found two pictures of mine have been stolen by a blog, asiarecipestips dot blogspot dot com. To whoever take food pictures from another blog, use them without telling the owner and eventually you are making money from your blog. You are convicted of stealing.

» Read More...

According to wikipedia, Canada Day (French: F�te du Canada), formerly Dominion Day (French: Le Jour de la Conf�d�ration), is Canada's national day, a federal statutory holiday celebrating the anniversary of the 1 July 1867 enactment of the British North America Act, which united Canada as a single country, which was in turn composed of four provinces. Canada Day observances take place throughout Canada as well as internationally. Happy Canada Day!!!!

Back to my day off, I celebrated by cooking. I was in Winnipeg to spend my day with my husband and kitchen :). What did I make? Still, something spicy and fishy. Pepes Ikan Woku! It can be translated as Steamed Fish with Woku Spices in Banana Leaves. Woku spices are rich Manadonese mixed spices.


Pepes Ikan Woku
recipe by Yohana Halim and Sedap Sekejap, modified by me

Ingredients
500 g fish steak (I used halibut steak)
calamansi
4 sprigs of lemon basil leaves (kemangi leaves)
1 turmeric leaves
7 kaffir lime leaves, 5 leaves for shredded and tear off the rest
1 pandan leaf, cut into 2 cm length
1 lemongrass, take the white part and bruised
banana leaves for wrapper
tooth picks

Grind into a paste
8 shallots
10 red chilies or as desired
4 candlenuts, toasted
3 cm long turmeric, roasted and peeled
3 cm long ginger, peeled
3 tbsp ground frozen lemongrass
salt as desired

Directions
1. Squeeze calamansi over fish and mariante for 30 minutes.
2. Rub fish with spiced paste and let it for 15 minutes.
3. Place fish, spiced paste, the leaves ingredients in banana leaves, wrap them up and pin with wood tooth picks or tie wih strings. Steam 45 minutes or until done.

» Read More...

As of June 15th, I moved to a small cattle producer town in Manitoba, Boissevain due to my current job. I still go back to Winnipeg once every two weeks.

The little small town has caught my intention with flowers around the area. I was so happy I finally found lemon basil (Indonesian: kemangi) plants for purchased here, at the greenhouse where I bought them. Lemon basil is a fragrant herb that is commonly used in Indonesian cuisine.

The warmness and friendliness feeling that I enjoy the most from people in this town. The most important I don't need to see lots traffic like in Winnipeg! :) Absolutely, I enjoy driving here.

A cozy coffee area in the giftware shop is also part of my morning coffee break. It's only one block away from my office with magnificent things that foodies love. Care to see the history of The Station, please visit the website at http://www.the-station.ca/. Thanks to Audrey Hicks to let me taking pics of the store. If you go to the US border or enter Canada through highway 10 please do visit Boissevain and The Station.

The Station
406 South Railway Street
Boissevain, MB
Canada R0K 0E0

The Front Look and The Black and White Corner...

The Red Lovers...

The Blue Lovers...

The Eco and Antique Lovers...

There, you go, my spot for coffee break...

» Read More...

Have you ever had berries cheese snack before? The product was pretty innovative by combining mozzarella cheese and Saskatoon berries. To create a packaging for the product, my friend asked me a favour to take few shots of the product as his team group who were developed for their class project. Shots were taken a place at the Food Science's kitchen of my university.

For those who are interested to develop this product, you may contact my friend by sending me an email.

» Read More...

Matcha or green tea powder in Japanese has become popular ingredient all over the world. You can name a number of different bakery or coffee shops which are selling their goodies/beverages with matcha included. Not only the good taste but the healthy effect of green tea is the reason why green tea is so famous.

I was so tempting to make this dessert for so long and I didn't remember anymore until the CAM Boga case. CAM Boga is a publisher who published few cookbooks by using Indonesian foodie bloggers' pictures without permission. This publisher used green tea pudding picture of Indonesian women magazine, Femina.

The original recipe was posted at Femina-Online. Due to the lack of ingredients, such milk and heavy cream in my pantry and too lazy to go out, I substituted for sweetened condensed milk and skipped the sugar. I also didn't make the sauce as directed

Please see the recipe by clicking read more.

Matcha Pudding
recipe by Femina, modified by me

Ingredients:
1 L water
7 g green tea powder (I used the organic green tea powder)*
1 package (7 g) of agar powder
1 cup (250 ml) sweetened condesed milk

Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients, except green tea powder.
2. Separate two mixture into two small pots.
3. Add green tea powder into pot 1 and bring to a boil at medium heat, stir occasionally.
4. Prepare moulds by rinse off with cold water, then add the boiling mixture into the moulds. Set aside.
5. Meanwhile, bring pot 2 into a boil and stir occasionally. When the green mixture has set, add the white mixture into the moulds. Fridge them until ready to serve. You can serve with almond cream sauce as well.

*If you don't have matcha or green tea powder just use sencha (green tea leaves) then grind.

» Read More...